Self-Study Syllabus on China’s Environment and Energy www.mandarinsociety.org PrefaceAbout this syllabus. topics of China’s environment serious about winning the “war”. and energy are full of paradoxes. TheChina burns half of the world’s coal - the Organized into five themes (pollution, main culprit of the country’s abysmal air environmental governance, fossil fuels, quality - yet it is the world’s biggest and transition to renewables, and climate change), fastest growing renewable energy market. this syllabus aims to guide you to understand Its environment and energy policies are full the causes and symptoms of, and potential of lofty goals, yet local implementation has solutions to China’s environmental and long fallen far behind. It was once seen as the energy challenges. A sample of both Chinese laggard in international climate negotiations, and English language readings are arranged but now it is positioned to become a leader so that you can complete this course with an in taking climate actions unilaterally and hour of reading each day, five days a week, multilaterally. over the course of five weeks. Each week’s most essential readings are marked in bold. Amidst mounting citizen outcry over the To break up the readings and to provide choking pollution, the government is visual aids, we have also included multimedia under pressure to clear the airways as resources (a mix of photos and videos) for environmental health - with its linkage to each week. human health - has become a major threat to social stability. Premier Li Keqiang called for How China, the world’s manufacturing hub, a “war on pollution” in 2014, and the upper powers itself while becoming greener is one echelons of the Communist Party have issued of the world’s greatest quandaries. There’s a new mandates to the air and water “Action lot of work to be done, so we’re glad you’re Plans” in a quest to show the public that it is here to help. American Mandarin Society 1 Week One: China’s Polluted Environment Current State of Air, Water, and Soil, and the Road Ahead Read all three parts. • “Feeding China,” Bloomberg Special Overview Report, 2017. Bloomberg’s 10-part series on China’s challenges and solutions to feed its people. This week’s readings start with an overview of the country’s environmental woes and the • “China is cracking down on air pollution costs to human health. They are followed by readings that provide a more detailed look at from shipping,” Freda Fung and Zhu Zhixi, the state of and the government’s actions on China’s air, water, and soil pollution. Chinadialogue, April 20, 2017. Fung and Zhu provide an overview of China’s shipping emissions challenges. • “The Mountains of Takeout Trash Choking China’s Cities,” Chen Ronggang, Sixth Tone, • “China’s Environmental Crisis”, Beina Xu, May 31, 2017. Chinese environmental October 15, 2017. Chen examines China’s CFR Backgrounders, Council on Foreign authority’s annual report on the nation’s growing takeout waste issue. Relations, April 25, 2014. This article provides environment, which shows the ministry’s an overview of China’s environmental crisis, jurisdictions and the state of China’s pollution providing the overall context. problems. Note the vague language used to MULTIMEDIA: • “Can China Lead the Way to a Better describe the country’s environmental woes. Environment?” Douglas Bulloch, CKGSB • “Air Pollution in China: Mapping of • [Photos] “Beijing’s Toxic Sky”, Alan Taylor, Knowledge, April 10, 2017. Bulloch provides Concentrations and Sources”, Robert Rohde In Focus, The Atlantic, March 4, 2015. an update on China’s environmental and Richard Muller, Berkeley Earth, July Before-and-after photos of scenes across challenges. 2015. A detailed look at China’s infamous air Beijing, with and without smog. • “China’s New Antipollution Push Could pollution. • [Photos] Photographs of China’s ‘Cancer Cool Its Growth Engine,” Keith Bradsher, • “New ‘Water Ten Plan’ to Safeguard China’s Villages’, Vice, January 15, 2015. New York Times, October 23, 2017. This Waters”, China Water Risk. China Water Risk • [Video] Smog Journeys: a short film by Jia article describes the push-pull that is the outlines the key targets in China’s Water Zhangke, Greenpeace East Asia, January 21, reality that much of China’s economic Pollution Action Plan with useful links for 2015.(7:06). growth has been driven by heavy-polluting further readings. • [Photos] “Qing China’s Internal Crisis: Land industries. • “Tainted Harvest: An E360 Special Report”, Shortage, Famine, Rural Poverty”, Asia for • 2016中国环境状况公报 [State of China’s He Guangwei, Yale Environment 360, June- Educators, Columbia University, 2009. Not Environment 2016], 中华人民共和国环境保 July, 2014. On-the-ground cases that provide confined to modern day China, ecology 护部 [Ministry of Environmental Protection], a window into China’s extensive and often crises were severe in the Qing Dynasty, as ignored soil pollution, and the consequences. depicted in these woodblock prints. American Mandarin Society 2 Week Two: Environmental Governance and Citizen Empowerment Environmental Law, Public Participation, and eNGOs remarks on valuing the environment - a key slogan for ecological civilization. • “Interpreting ecological civilisation”, Sam Geall, Chinadialogue, July 6, 2015. Executive Editor of the wildly popular Chinadialogue Overview explains ecological civilization and its implications. Read all three parts. • “The Search for Sustainable Legitimacy: Many believe that poor governance is the primary root of China’s environmental Environmental Law and Bureaucracy in problems. This week’s readings first provide a broad framework for understanding China”, Alex Wang, Harvard Environmental China’s environmental governance, and then attempt to explain the many reasons for Law Review, vol. 37, no. 1, 2013. Wang such a governance crisis. Later items focus on the new environmental law and recent examines China’s environmental cadre progress in information transparency, followed by a closer look at the role civil society evaluation system, and argues that it is a tool plays in China’s green movement. for limiting risks to the party-state’s hold on power. • “‘压力型体制’下的政治激励与地方 环境治理 [Political motivation under the • “China’s environmental governance crisis”, 的意见 [Opinions of the Central Committee “pressure system” and local environmental prepared written statement submitted for of the Communist Party of China and the governance]”, 冉冉 [Ran Ran], :《经济社会体 the record by Elizabeth Economy, Council State Council on Further Promoting the 制比较》[Comparative Economics & Social on Foreign Relations, May 22, 2013. CFR’s Development of Ecological Civilization], Systems], Vol. 3, 2013. Ran argues that Liz Economy testifies before Congress on Xinhua, April 25, 2015. Co-signed by the the target-oriented governance system is China’s transparency (or lack thereof) on Central Committee of the Party, “ecological fundamentally deficient in local environmental environmental monitoring. civilization” will be a national strategy guiding policy implementation. • “Environmental Compliance and China’s development policy over the next five • “Water Control in the Dongting Lake Region Enforcement in China: An Assessment of years and beyond. during the Ming and Qing Periods”, Peter C. Current Practices and Ways Forward”, • “绿水青山就是金山银山——关于大力推 Perdue, The Journal of Asian Studies, 41, Organization for Economic Co-Operation and 进生态文明建设 [Clear waters and green pp 747-765, 1982. (subscription required). Development, 2006. Though a bit outdated, mountains are gold and silver: On vigorously Perdue draws similarities between Qing-era the OECD provides an overview of China’s push forward ecological civilization environmental governance and that of today, environmental governance structure. construction]”, 《习近平总书记系列重要讲 with the challenge of implementing broad • 中共中央国务院关于加快推进生态文明建设 话读本》 [Important Remarks by General environmental policies in far-flung cities Secretary Xi Jinping], July 11, 2014. Xi’s managed by development-conscious local American Mandarin Society 3 Week 2 >> officials. Cheng from Friends of Nature - China’s first • “新环境保护法的突破和困境 [The environmental NGO - discusses the evolution breakthroughs and Struggles of the New of China’s eNGOs and the role citizens play Environmental Protection Law]”, 夏军 [Xia in environmental governance. Jun], 纽约时报中文网 [The New York Times China], May 8, 2014. The author examines MULTIMEDIA: the progress and weaknesses of the new Environmental Law (went into effect on • [Video] “Under the Dome.” (1:43:55). January 1, 2015). “Under the Dome” went viral in the spring • “Ma Jun: China has reached its of 2015 garnering over 150 million views the environmental tipping point”, Tom Levitt, The weekend it was released. For more analysis, Guardian, May 19, 2015. Profile of China’s watch this panel of experts offer their most prominent environmentalist. interpretations. • “China’s ‘Silent Spring’ Moment? Why • [Video] 李克强谈雾霾称坚决向污染宣战 [Li ‘Under the Dome’ Found a Ready Audience Keqiang on smog, declares war on pollution], in China”, Daniel Gardner, The New York March 5, 2014. Premier Li’s statement during Times, March 18, 2015. Gardner argues that the 2014 “two meetings” on China’s war on Beijing has allowed for greater freedom of pollution. expression on environment than other issues • [Weibo] 绿家园环境友好中心 [Green Fujian], until it is seen as a threat to social stability. Green Fujian is a good example of how • “The Role of Civil Society in Environmental grassroots NGO work ties into measures for Governance in